Monday, September 30, 2019

Prespectives on Personality Essay

The study of personality is one of the major topics of interest within psychology. Numerous personality theories exist, and most of the major ones fall in to one of four major perspectives. Each of these perspectives on personality attempts to describe different patterns in personality, including how these patterns form and how people differ on an individual level. The Psychoanalytic Perspective The  psychoanalytic perspective  of personality emphasizes the importance of early childhood experiences and the unconscious mind. This perspective on personality was created by psychiatrist Sigmund Freud who believed that things hidden in the unconscious could be revealed in a number of different ways, including through dreams, free association and slips of the tongue. Neo-Freudian theorists, including Erik Erikson, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler and  Karen Horney, believed in the importance of the unconscious, but disagreed with other aspects of Freud’s theories. The Humanistic Perspective The humanistic perspective of personality focuses on psychological growth, free will and personal awareness. It takes a more positive outlook on human nature and is centered on how each person can achieve their individual potential. The Social Cognitive Perspective The social cognitive perspective of personality emphasizes the importance of observational learning, self-efficacy, situational influences and cognitive processes. Major Theorists and Their Theories: †¢ Sigmund Freud:  Stressed the importance of early childhood events, the influence of the unconscious and sexual instincts in the development and formation of personality. Erik Erikson:  Emphasized the social elements of personality development, the identity crisis and how personality is shaped over the course of the entire lifespan. †¢ Carl Jung:  Focused on concepts such as the collective unconscious,  archetypes  and psychological types. †¢ Alfred Adler:  Believed the core motive behind personality involves striving for superiority, or the desire to overcome challenges and move closer toward self-realiz ation. This desire to achieve superiority stems from underlying feelings of inferiority that Adler believed were universal. Karen Horney:  Focused on the need to overcome basic anxiety, the sense of being isolated and alone in the world. She emphasized the societal and cultural factors that also play a role in personality, including the importance of the parent-child relationship. What is the Trait Theory The trait approach to personality is one of the major theoretical areas in the study of personality. The trait theory suggests that individual personalities are composed broad dispositions. Consider how you would describe the personality of a close friend. Chances are that you would list a number of traits, such as  outgoing,  kind  and  even-tempered. A trait can be thought of as a relatively stable characteristic that causes individuals to behave in certain ways. The Trait Perspective The trait perspective of personality is centered on identifying, describing and measuring the specific traits that make up human personality. By understanding these traits, researchers believe they can better comprehend the differences between individuals Gordon Allport’s Trait Theory In 1936, psychologist  Gordon Allport  found that one English-language dictionary alone contained more than 4,000 words describing different personality traits.   He categorized these traits into three levels: †¢ Cardinal Traits:  Traits that dominate an individual’s whole life, often to the point that the person becomes known specifically for these traits. People with such personalities often become so known for these traits that their names are often synonymous with these qualities. Consider the origin and meaning of the following descriptive terms: Freudian, Machiavellian, narcissism, Don Juan, Christ-like, etc. Allport suggested that cardinal traits are rare and tend to develop later in life. 2 Central Traits:  These are the general characteristics that form the basic foundations of personality. These central traits, while not as dominating as cardinal traits, are the major characteristics you might use to describe another perso n. Terms such as  intelligent,  honest,shy  and  anxious  are considered central traits. †¢ Secondary Traits:  These are the traits that are sometimes related to attitudes or preferences and often appear only in certain situations or under specific circumstances. Some examples would be getting anxious when speaking to a group or impatient while waiting in line.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

African Americans and Southern Racism During Reconstruction Essay

Introduction At the end of the Civil War, America faced the difficult task of uniting not only two separated territories of the United States, but also two races long separated by racism and culture. Devastated and embittered by the damage of the war, the South had a long way to go in order to achieve true equality between the former slave owners and former slaves. The majority of the South remained set in racist behavior, finding post-Civil War legal loopholes to diminish African American rights (Tindall & Shi, 2010, pp. 757-758). Southerners continued to marginalize Blacks in their behavior toward ex-slaves and the later African American generation, continuing the escalation of racial tensions through white terror and discriminatory attitudes (Tindall & Shi, 2010, p. 759). Most subversively, southern newspapers propagated stereotypes against African Americans in their coverage and descriptions of constitutional conventions (Logue, 1979, p. 342). Although Radical Reconstruction offered some prog ress toward social equality after the Civil War, its success was short-lived as African Americans suffered vast disenfranchisement through racist rulings, attitudes, and media representation in the South at the turn of the century. Rulings against African Americans After the Civil War had come to an end, African Americans in the South quickly made use of their new-found political and social rights, employing their right to vote from the Fifteenth Amendment and serving as prominent political figures (Tindall & Shi, 2010, p. 722). However, the formerly fervent commitment to Radical Reconstruction soon dwindled (Tindall & Shi, 2010, p. 739). Many of the advances toward civil equality were soon erased: In 1883, the Supreme Court declared the Civil Rights Laws of 1875 unconstitutional, and the political power Blacks had gained, especially in the South where 90% of Blacks lived, was completely undone. Black voter  participation dropped from 96% to 26% in South Carolina in just 12 years (1876-1888); in those same 12 years, voter participation of Blacks dropped from 53% to 18% in Georgia (Burris-Kitchen & Burris, 2011, p. 5). Even while African Americans enjoyed an uninhibited freedom to voting rights, many still suffered disenfranchisement at the ha nds of rampant racial discrimination in the South. Although discontent Southerners could not impede the Black right to vote, they found ulterior methods to marginalize African Americans. â€Å"Since the Fifteenth Amendment made it impossible simply to deny African Americans the right to vote, disenfranchisement was accomplished indirectly, through such devices as poll taxes (or head taxes) and literacy tests† (Tindall & Shi, 2010, p. 757). â€Å"Jim Crow† laws mandated racial segregation in public areas in the South and were often accompanied by physical abuse and terror to African Americans (Tindall & Shi, 2010, pp. 756-759). These underhand activities in the South demonstrated that while African Americans were technically free, they continually suffered from unjust rulings and actions. These sprang from the rampantly racist attitudes in the South: Although great strides were made toward political and economic freedom for Blacks following the Civil War, the progress made was quickly squashed by political movements and rhetoric, which implied that Blacks could not handle their newly-found freedom and that the White working class was threatened by Blacks who were trying to take their jobs, their property, and their government away from them (Burris-Kitchen & Burris, 2011, p. 5). Racist Attitudes Many Southerners continued to believe and propagate these ideas that African Americans had a subversive agenda to the White working class. These ideas culminated in deep-seated attitudes against African Americans in the South: â€Å"During the 1890s the attitudes that had permitted moderation in race relations evaporated. A violent ‘Negrophobia’ swept across the South and much of the nation at the end of the century† (Tindall & Shi, 2010, p. 756). However, African Americans at the turn of the century had become weary of disenfranchisement and were ready to stand up against these attitudes: â€Å"This generation was more assertive and less patient than their parents. ‘We are not the Negro from who the chains of slavery fell a quarter century ago, most assuredly not,’ a black editor announced† (Tindall &  Shi, 2010, p. 756). Unfortunately, this may have simply increased a White agenda of racial discrimination, as â€Å"a growing number of youn g white adults, however, were equally determined to keep ‘Negroes in their place’† (Tindall & Shi, 2010, p. 756). Whether Southerners felt that African Americans imposed a threat to their jobs, their safety, or their rights, the overarching attitude of the South clearly displayed a strong desire to maintain racial dominance of the pre-Civil War era. Part of this attitude motivated a desire to limit education for African Americans: To keep Blacks uneducated meant Whites could boast of their superior intellect; this had been in the arsenal of Whites for hundreds of years prior to Reconstruction and continues to be used over 130 years after Reconstruction. Denial of education for Blacks existed through Reconstruction as a form of White racism and a justification for their inferior political and economic status (Burris-Kitchen & Burris, 2011, p. 6). Any kind of advantage Whites could claim in the South became ammunition in their discriminatory attitudes. These ideas and attitudes fed the propagation of racist stereotypes and bias in southern newspapers. Prejudiced Media in the South Perhaps the most subtle yet shocking form of racism in the South during Reconstruction was the biased reporting of many southern newspapers. Whether the ideas and attitudes of many southern Whites influenced these published stereotypes or vice versa, it is clear that southern publications often encouraged and promoted racist attitudes at the end of the century. A publication in Charleston, South Carolina displayed this racist subtext: â€Å"While promising its readers ‘truth,’ the Charleston Mercury mocked journalistic license by actually printing racist ridicule. A favorite method was to scorn African-Americans in the convention as a race, exploiting racist attitudes saved by white readers from slavery† (Logue, 1979, p. 339). Covering the constitutional convention in Columbia in 1867, white journalists used racist stereotypes in describing the black delegates’ involvement: â€Å"Reporters emphasized how blacks would â€Å"chuckle and grin,† thereby exploiting the racist assumption of many whites that blacks were mere fun-loving, animal-like creatures who had to be protected from themselves† (Logue, 1979, p. 341). The Charleston paper encouraged racist  attitudes through the ridicule of black speech and pronunciation, mocking ex-slave â€Å"ignorance† rather than reporting important issues discussed at the convention: When blacks debated the issue of ‘changing the title of districts to counties,’ for example, the only thing the reporters heard was â€Å"the very awkward sound of ‘deestrict’ as district is pronounced by some of the delegates.† Because of their preoccupation with such factors, reporters seldom informed their readers about issues that were discussed, such as public education, relief from debts, taxes, and so on (Logue, 1979, p. 342). In this manner, the South remained entrapped in a media-fueled suspicion and fear of African Americans, feeding the continued presence of racism and discrimination during the post-Civil War reconstruction. Conclusion In conclusion, the progress of Radical Reconstruction largely failed to reform the disenfranchisement of African Americans in the South on a long-term scale. The attitudes of the Southern whites continued to influence the freedom of former slaves as they faced discriminating rulings, racist attitudes, and biased media. While some African Americans from further generations were largely unwilling to bow subserviently to the effects of white terror and discrimination, civil rights equality had a long and arduous path to completion in the South. While many of the racist attitudes of the post-Civil War South seem shocking to a modern-day reader, the influence of the actions and attitudes of white Southerners serves as a reminder of the power of repeated falsehoods, particularly within media subtext and bias. The disenfranchisement of African Americans during reconstruction displays the extent of deep-seated racial prejudice based on fear, stubbornness, and ignorance. As Burris-Kitchen and Burris point out: Throughout American history, Blacks have been demonized and criminalized, and this history has led us to where we are today. Until we can change the perceptions of Blacks through the media, political and economic arenas they will continue to pay the price for an inherently racist political, economic, educational, and criminal justice system (Burris-Kitchen & Burris, 2011, p. 14). References Burris-Kitchen, D., & Burris, P. (2011). From slavery to prisons: A historical delineation of the criminalization African Americans. Journal of Global Intelligence & Policy, 4 (5), 1-16. Retrieved from http://0-web.ebscohost.com.library.regent.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=adef70d4-c4d9-4d2b-b5c9-3b1efa487879%40sessionmgr14&vid=2&hid=127# Logue, C. M. (March 1979). Racist reporting during reconstruction. Journal of Black Studies, 9 (3), 335-349. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2784304 Tindall, G. B.; Shi, D. E. (2010). America: A narrative history (8th ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Management Accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 8

Management Accounting - Essay Example This affects the costs and consequently affects the profits. Therefore, the company should use ABC costing method in order to obtain the correct overhead costs for products XYI, YZT and ABW. This is because ABC takes into account more than one cost driver into account. It is more accurate since it assigns costs to products and traces all activities and assigns them to products by using multiple cost drivers. ABC (activity based costing) is the costing method that is currently trending in the world. It has received credit for correcting deficiencies that existed in the traditional system. It is seen as the best costing method available for managers that operate various departments since they are able to assign costs to their products more accurately. However, ABC has received a lot of criticism due to its failures experienced in large operations. Managers of these large firms have termed it difficult to implement and maintain. Activity based costing does not offer the managers with accurate and timely information for decision-making. Activity based cost systems that are used in large-operational firms have proved to provide managers with out-of-date and inaccurate information. This is due to the huge amount of data to be collected. In addition, there is delay in the data to be collected. For instance, in a larger firm, it will require about 110 departments to submit their reports periodically. This makes the process time-consuming since it will take time for the system to calculate the costs for its numerous activities. The time-consuming process has resulted to the companies doing away with the ABC or ceasing to update their systems. This leads to out-of-date and inaccurate information provided to the managers by the ABC systems (Kaplan and Anderson, 2014). Universally, ABC has received resistance. This is evidenced by the annual survey carried out that ranked ABC position 2 after median. This has led to some companies abandoning ABC or failing to adopt

Friday, September 27, 2019

Tax system contribution to economic growth Essay

Tax system contribution to economic growth - Essay Example In other words, without investments, innovation, production and risk taking there will be nothing about economic growth. Production is of great significance because it is the only link between all drivers of economy. Most taxes are often concentrated along labor, investments and production (Economic Review Committee (ERC), 2012). For instance, the United Kingdom as well as other countries in developed and developing world charges income tax on returns from labor, capital gain tax on capital, excise and Value Added Tax (VAT) on production and corporate and property tax on investments. This is a clear manifestation that factors that drive economic growth are the major sources of revenue to the government thus the link between economic growth and tax system. Policy makers are often very cautious with taxation policies proposition considering that these can make or break a nation. Slemrod (2003) asserts that a government can lose big on its tax revenue if it is careless with its tax syst ems especially during this tough economic time that the entire world is healing from the impact of global financial crunch. For instance, multinational companies are likely to shift to countries with low corporation tax rates if the parent country is charging high taxes. Countries that want to advance their economies are renowned for luring investors both foreign and local by offering favorable tax laws and reliefs. A number of countries are carrying out several reforms on their tax systems owing to the pressure from pundits and economists who continue to stand by the view that high taxes are not good for economic prospect. This view is enhanced from the existing empirical studies that involve a review of a number... This essay is the best example of thorough analysis of the mechanisms, by which taxes affect economic growth. It is argued in the paper, that the tax system make tangible contribution to economic growth Economists and policymakers have conducted several studies for a number of years with an objective of establishing the link between tax systems and economic growth. Most, though not all of these studies did establish an undesirable effect of taxes on different measures of a country’s economic performance. A number of taxes especially income, property, capital gain and consumption based taxes have always attracted a lot of attention with respect to their impact on economic growth. Economic growth, which refers to an increase in countries total output over a specified period, is driven by three important factors namely capital, labor and technological advancement. Taxes interfere with income from economic activities that is production of goods and services . This means that lowering or increasing taxes will certainly affect income drawn from an economic activity. For instance, increased income tax will translates to wider gap between gross and net earnings and vice versa. Returns from labor is an important motivator for engaging in gainful employment. However, tax systems especially high personal income tax often discourage people from engaging in labor market. Taxation of factor capital is another important area of consideration when trying to bring out the link between tax system and economic growth.

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Security issues involved with the transition of IPv4 to IPv6 Research Paper

Security issues involved with the transition of IPv4 to IPv6 - Research Paper Example This helps them stay connected to their colleagues or bosses at work as on the other hand helping them solve minor home based problems by use of the internet resources. As a matter of fact, many people are adopting the work from home formula from the benefit of readily available internet supply. This kind of technological change makes the internet a reliable resource on a varied range of applications. Above all, the internet is now one of the main channels of communication. For instance, business people use it to transfer information on their transactions and governments use it for conducting administrative functions. However, many governments are struggling to strengthen its security levels every new day. According to Hinden and Deering in the publication IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture 2006, it is true to state that the internet is a significant resource for the entire world. Below the application layer, where the above mentioned internet services are out in the open to the en d user, the network comprises of a number of routers, servers and other network enabled devices which transfer information/data by use of standard set of protocols. ... This leads to the security issues that link to the set standards of protocols in the networking systems. Today the generation of Internet Protocol is the IPV4 which is in existence since the 80’s. It plays a role in the internet growth since then. This internet protocol can be effortlessly installed and is interoperable using 32 bit address space to contain approximately 4 billion unique addresses. However, as the internet is growing rapidly, the IPV4 is facing a lot of challenges which include forthcoming exhaustion of the IPV4 address space, security issues, configuration problems and other technical complications at the IP stage. The IPV4 suffers Denial of Service (DOS) attacks which is an action to make the computer resource unavailable to its set users. This happens in flooding the target host with requests, consequently stopping authenticate network traffic to access the host. The IPV4 is a target for viruses and worms transfer as a result of the exhaustible address spac e of the IPV4. The IPV4 exposes confidential data of end users to attackers and hackers who can easily modify without their knowledge. The IPV4 faces fragmentation attacks where the victim host can crash, hang or reboot as a result of the fragmented ICMP packets that exceed the total allowable size for IP data address. There are technological ways to control the above mentioned security issues in connection with IPV4. The transition of IPV4 to IPV6 is one of the ways that involves the end users, administrators and the network operators (Sotillo 5). However, this transition comes with its own security issues. This transition process is conducted to ensure modest disturbance occurs in executing hosts and routers

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Child Development Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Child Development - Article Example According to the research findings cognitive development involves the change in a child’s intelligence, language, thought skills, and patterns, a well as problem solving, while social emotional factors involve the relationship of the child with others, emotional changes, and personalities among others. Biological factors involve the change in a baby’s body such as the brain, weight, and height, which are based on genetic inheritance. The early years of a child are the most important. Generally, healthy development fosters child’s abilities; however, children tend to develop at their own pace, although their development should be closely monitored. From the infancy stage to three years, a child highly depends on his/her parents or caregivers; the child’s biological development is based on genetic inheritance. The brain development of a child enables it to crawl, eat, laugh, or speak; however, this development is based on the parent’s interaction with the child or the genetic inheritance. Genes are transferred form the parents to a child, and therefore, there are similarities between the child and his parents or relatives. This is evident in appearance, talents, and personalities developed as they grow. Each child must inherit gene from his parents, as infant development genetic characteristics are noticeable; for instance, their height, weight, hair color, or eye color may resemble their parents. The quick growth of a child may also be compared to his relatives’ genetics. ... For example, some children can construct a full sentence by the age of three, while others cannot. Cognitive Factors Cognitive factors mainly involve changes in a child’s intelligence, language, and thinking; children are capable of incorporating information into existing knowledge as they develop. An infant may learn how to explore the surrounding environment with his hands or eyes; from birth, infants begin their learning process. They gather, sort, and process information, and as a result, they are capable of understanding their world. In early childhood, a child’s intelligence develops such that their language and imagination mature. The infants begin to learn through focusing on an object, volume of sound, colors and so on. At three months, these infants are capable of imitating facial expressions such as, smiling or frowning. At six months, babies can recognize their parents and their names as well. By the age of three years, a child can begin to be independent by playing with different kind of instruments, without assistance. The child also understands simple words like than you, please and sorry, depending on the parent’s upbringing. When an infant is one year old, he is capable of making different sound such as bubbling. At three years, he can speak orderly words; this development results from learning from the infant’s caregivers. Cognitive development fosters curiosity, problem solving, memory, and attention in 1-3 year old infants. Their surroundings assist them in learning new skills. Parents contribute to cognitive development in numerous ways, expanding the attention time for their children, and therefore, the children are able to explore and learn. Parental listening skills are vital in this

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Health Care Informatics - Electronic Health Records Essay

Health Care Informatics - Electronic Health Records - Essay Example Ultimately, EHRs provide protection against natural disasters as well as other dangers that may occur unexpectedly including floods, explosions, and fires since the records are usually stored in databases in multiple locations and can be accessed with ease. They allow the physicians to use their laptops, tablets and mobile phones from one room to the next or different locations while the employees who are on-call can login through secure virtual private networks and get access to information on their patients. EHRs allow the providers along with the patients to get access to information required to reduce errors and improve the satisfaction and outcomes of the patients. 2.List and explain in detail 3 advantages and 3 disadvantages of EHRs. Do not just list your answers. Advantages 1. Cost aversion Majority of the reduced costs linked to EHRs originate from efficiencies that result from having information on patients available electronically. The efficiencies include better test utili zation, reduced resources for the staff in regards to management of patients, reduced cost of supplies required for maintaining paper files as well as reduced costs of transcription and costs associated with pulling charts. Using EHRs can greatly decrease redundant usage of tests or required to send hard copies through the mail to various providers. Through ensuring information about patients is easily available, EHRs assist in the reduction of costs associated with pulling charts and the supplies required in maintaining paper charts.

Monday, September 23, 2019

Design and security of a small businness network - case study Essay

Design and security of a small businness network - case study - Essay Example The network layout of I.T soft requires an expandable and efficient network that will fulfill the requirements of the company. Advanced security features are also required in order to protect the VoIP traffic and preserve network availability. Project Scope and Objectives As I.T soft has decided to implement a new network. The network will use the latest technology in terms of both hardware and software, however cost considerations cannot be ignored as the company is an SME . The implementation of software technology includes the new innovative network that will support the following: Centralized Database access for sales/customer databases Email Internet access Company Website and Intranet VOIP They intend to run a local DNS server probably on their main domain server. They wish to provide a location for all users to store any company data Accounts and payroll data should only be available to the relevant staff. The customer database should be accessible to all staff, however they o ften have visitors to site who require network access, but the company are concerned about the integrity of their databases. Implementing a wireless environment to provide access to visitors They also require a training room, with networking and access to the internet. protect the integrity of their email and VOIP systems They need to provide access to internal data to staff working off-site. Requirement for tools and Suggestions in order to optimize network performance Requirements for monitoring the provision of their core services such as the availability and performance of their servers and VoIP system Tools to warn of any significant network changes Monitor any attacks on their systems Providing redundancy and failover Network Topology Star topology is recommended for the wired local area network. It is the most widely adopted topology. The star topology supports the centralized provision of network resources and services. The support staff can manage the network administrative and troubleshooting tasks centrally. Star topology helps to implement centralized security architecture for improved and enhanced security of the network. The network implementation cost can be saved by provisioning the core systems located centrally. The security controls and backup systems are also located centrally for better troubleshooting and management. Example of the star topology is available in Fig 1.1. Network Cables For deploying the local network for Camden site, CAT 5 cable is the best option. It supports both voice and data transmission. CAT-5 is in the form of twisted pairs. This cable consists of four copper wire pairs, connecting the network node with RJ 45 connectors.CAT-5 supports up to 100 to 1000 MHz speeds in a ‘full duplex’ mode (Category 5 Cable. 2007). The Camden site will corresponds to request related to internet applications, voice and video transmission, file transfer protocol and Emails. CAT 5 can support these features with ease. However , CAT 5 cable can support up to 300 feet equal to 100 meters in distance. A requirement of the switch is mandatory for every 300 feet. Routers A router is a core computing and packet processing devices in the computer network. Router connects two or more networks with different subnets, enabling the networks to expand on an enterprise level. Logically the router builds a routing table, where it stores all the route addresses. For example, the data packet

Sunday, September 22, 2019

The outward journey experienced by Buddha Essay Example for Free

The outward journey experienced by Buddha Essay Outline the inward journey and the outward journey experienced by Buddha, Nicky Cruz and Lord Fenner Brockway. Explain what spirituality means to you after studying the 3 case studies. To me, spirituality is being in harmony with yourself and others around you. Its having the feeling that there are other people to care for and that we (as individuals) are small creatures in a big world. I ask myself Is that it? What is there more to life? In this essay I am going cover the various issues that appear in the paths of the Buddha, Nicky Cruz and Lord Fenner Brockway when they experienced their inward and outward journeys. Prince Sidhartha Gautama was kept away from the outside world by his father so he never saw any of the bad things that happen in life. The one time that he ventured out of the grounds he saw death, old age and illness he was confused and puzzled. Having been brought up in the lap of luxury he had never experienced these things before. He asked himself, Why are there these things? What causes this? To help answer his questions he tried many different things. He first tried the Ascetic lifestyle, which was a very simple life, but after seven years of no luck he tried another method. He sat under a tree to meditate. Suddenly it came to him; it was that everything in life changes even if we dont want it to. You have to accept these things and in result of doing so you will be happy. Sidharta discovered that life is a spiral, at the top is people, those who are good will become a Buddha. Nicky Cruz was born into an unhappy family; he was on of 18 children and was sent to New York to live with his Brother. In New York Nicky joined the Mau Mau Gang This gang were involved in fights, robberies, gang activities, murders and they were at war with the police. In July 1958 a man called David Wilkinson who was a preacher in the street, approached Nicky and told him that God loved him. Nicky had disbelief, if no one had ever loved him before then why now. He was persuaded to go to a meeting about God and Christianity. As David finished his speech, Nicky realised that his wanted to change. He was changed immediately. He went to a bible college and then went back to the Mau Maus and talked to them about Christ. He visited his family and overall became a caring, kind and thoughtful person. He set out to help others who needed it. In the end he opened his own home with help from the public, he carried on helping people and now says I buried Nicky Cruzhe is dead. Now I am alive in Christ. Lord Fenner Brockway believed that he was part of all life, that he had become one with all life and that he was in everything. His spirit, soul, personality had reached out and it effected his and became his way of life, he changed dramatically. He was sitting watching a sunset over the Irish Sea and all of a sudden he had a feeling that overwhelmed him. It left him with a great calm; he was swept up into the beauty of it he felt he was more than an individual. His purpose in life was that peace and justice become an understanding of the citizens of the world. He then became an M.P to help and support people he worked honestly and hard. In conclusion they all did much the same thing in different ways. One thing that was similar was that they all had questions that they wanted answers to and that they all went on some kind of journey to get them. The Buddha came from a very well off background and Nicky Cruz came from a terrible upbringing and Lord Fenner Brockway was a Humanist. The Buddha found his answers in his soul, from the inside, whereas Nick Cruz turned to Christ to find the answers to his questions. They all found their answers but in different situations. In my opinion, the journeys that the three of them went on are journeys which everyone experiences at some point in their lives. You do not have to turn to Christ to get your answers you can get them in different ways. Everyone asks questions, its the way that they find their answers that is different!

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Fast Food Nation Essay Example for Free

Fast Food Nation Essay The main characters in the novel Fast Food Nation are Richard and Maurice â€Å"Mac† McDonald, Ray Kroc, Walt Disney, Carl N. Karcher, and Dave Thomas. The McDonald’s brothers are from New Hampshire. They opened up the first McDonald’s restaurant in 1937 in southern California. They revolutionized the fast food industry in 1948 by ridding their business of carhops, and using disposable plates and cups to serve finger food. Ray Kroc was a high school drop-out from Illinois. He sold milkshake makers until he met the McDonald brothers in 1954. He sold milkshake makers to them, and bought the right to franchise their company. He is known as a pioneer in the fast-food industry for creating characters that rivaled others such as Mickey Mouse. Walt Disney became Ray Kroc’s biggest rival after refusing to put a McDonald’s in Disneyland, which was model marketing to children. Carl is also one of the American fast-food industry’s pioneers. At twenty-years-old, Carl moved to Anaheim, California where he began his first hotdog stand. Carl eventually turned his hotdog stands into drive-in restaurants. After observing the first McDonald’s restaurants success, Carl started expanding and developed the Carl’s Jr’s restaurants. In 1997, the corporation expanded dramatically with the new possession of the Hardees Restaurant chain. In 2004, CKE Restaurants, Inc. had revenues in excess of 1. 4 billion dollars. Dave Thomas dropped out of school at fifteen-years-old. After working as a bus boy and a cook, he eventually founded Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers restaurant in Columbus, Ohio in 1969. Today, there are thousands of Wendy’s restaurants and they remain popular throughout the world. Dave is probably best known as the guy on the Wendys TV commercials. From 1989 to 2002, Dave appeared in over 800 commercials for the restaurant chain. He died after a long battle with liver cancer in 2002. The setting of this novel is in any fast-food restaurant on an international level. The theme of this novel is that we as Americans can no longer ignore the many health hazards of a fast-food diet. Years of consuming fast food has resulted in diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and obesity. There are several conflicts in this novel. One type is man vs. man. An example of this is when former employees return to the restaurants and kill innocent people. Another example of man vs. man is when companies pay doctors and nurses to minimize reportable injuries. This is not fair towards the injured employee. Plot: * This book opens with discussing Carl Karcher and Ray Kroc’s roles as fast-food pioneers. * Next we examine Kroc’s complicated relationship with Walt Disney, and each man’s rise to fame. * Then, we go to Colorado Springs, CO to observe and investigate the working conditions of a typical fast-food employee. * After that, we discuss the chemical components that make up fast-food. * We then observe the lives of ranchers and meat packing industries that supply for fast-food chains. * The book ends by discussing how America has matured as a cultural export. There has been a mass spread of American goods and services, especially fast-food. As a result, the rest of the world is catching up to America’s rising obesity rates.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Comparison of Working and Non-Working Mother Adolescents

Comparison of Working and Non-Working Mother Adolescents Relation Among Depression, Loneliness and Self-efficacy of Adolescents of Working and Non-Working Mother Sadia Afrin Summary The main purpose of this study was to investigate the relation among depression, loneliness and self-efficacy of adolescents of working and non-working mothers whether mother’s occupation has any effects on adolescent’s depression, loneliness and self-efficacy. Assess whether depression, loneliness and self-efficacy of adolescents differ by gender or not. The participants of the relevant study will be 100 adolescents of working mothers where 50 will male and 50 will female and 100 adolescents of non-working mothers where 50 will male and 50 will female between the age group of 15 to 18 years selected purposively by convenience sampling technique. To collect the data I will use Bangla Version (Pervin, 2007) of the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale (Russell, Dan, 1978), The Depression Scale (Rahman Uddin, 2005), and adopted Bengali Version (Ilyas, 2005) of Sherer’s (1982) General Self-Efficacy Scale. Descriptive and correlation statistical techniques will be employed to depict the quantitative data. Successful completion of the project will add a worthy picture of risk factors of adolescents. Introduction Adolescence comes from Latin word â€Å"adolescere† which means to grow up. It is a transitional stage of physical and psychological human development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to legal adulthood. We all face different emotion, feeling in all over in our life. Depression is an emotional state marked by great sadness and apprehension, feelings of worthlessness and guilt, loss of interest and pleasure in usual activities. So it is a state of low  mood  and aversion to activity that can affect a persons thoughts, behavior, feelings and  sense of well being. According to the National Comorbidity Survey-Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A), about 11% of adolescents have a depressive disorder by age 18. Girls are experiencing depression more likely than boys. Depression in adolescents is probably under diagnosed because the symptoms can be difficult to recognize. Loneliness is an unpleasant experience that occurs when a network of social relationships of a person is significantly deficient whether qualitatively or quantitatively. This definition consists two points of agreement. First, loneliness comes from a deficiency in a persons social relationships. It happens when there is a mismatch between a persons actual social relations and the persons needs or desires for social contact. Second, loneliness is not synonymous with social isolation; it is person’s subjective experience. So it can be said that, Lonelinessis unpleasant and unexpected  emotional  response to isolation or separation or lack of companionship. Although loneliness comes time to time of all age but during adolescence (particularly early adolescence) it is stayed in peak because of many changes in social expectations, roles, relationships, and identities, which may increase the experience of loneliness. Self-efficacy one’s perceived capabilities for learning and performing actions at designated levels. It is the power or strength of ones belief in on es own ability to finish tasks and reach aims. According to Albert Bandura, self-efficacy is the belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations. In other words, self-efficacy is a person’s belief in his or her ability to succeed in a particular situation. Many researchers are counting academic competence as self efficacy which begins to decline in grade 7 or earlier. Research in where using longer depression scales such as the Beck Depression Inventory also find a strong relationship between loneliness and depression. The consistent association of loneliness and depression Bragg (1979) proposed a distinction between depressed loneliness and non-depressed loneliness. In a study of college students, Bragg found that depressed loneliness was associated with fairly global negativity, seen in dissatisfaction with social relations, school, work, and many facets of life. In contrast, non-depressed lonely people expressed dissatisfaction only with their social relations; they were not necessarily unhappy about other aspects of their lives. Cognitive processes may also influence the loneliness-depression link. Lonely people who blame themselves for their social problems and who attribute their loneliness to unchangeable factors may be most prone to depression. Self-efficacy makes a difference to as how people feel, think, and act. High self-efficacy allow s individuals to choose challenging settings and explore their environment or create new ones. While Bandura (1997) reported that a low self-efficacy is associated with a low self-esteem, Heslin and Klehe (2006) noted that self-efficacy is related to the experience of stress and work burnout. Specifically, low self-efficacy can lead to a sense of helplessness and hopelessness about ones capability of self-esteem. Dussault and Deaudelin (2001) found a negative correlation between self-efficacy and loneliness (r = .25). This finding suggests that loneliness is more likely exists in people who have lower self-efficacy. Every moment mothers are working for children, in this study working mother indicating them who are attached with job, business almost five years at this time and non-working means mothers who are only housewives. According to Raymond Montemayor Mark D. Clayton (1967), maternal employment might be more likely to result in problems for adolescents when it takes place in the context of family instability, undesirable peer influences and lack of maternal supervision. Lakhe (2003) completed a study which has the aim to see the social adjustment of the adolescents of working and non-working mothers. The result was found that adolescent’s total level of adjustments of working mother is higher than non-working mother. Suprerna Khanna studied on relationship between emotional intelligence and social maturity of adolescent children of working and non-working mothers. This study also found significant social maturity in adolescent children of working mothers than non-working mothers. Rationale of the study: In Bangladesh, there are almost 27.7million adolescents’. Among them, a significant numbers are suffering different mental health problems like anxiety, depression, stress, loneliness, low self-efficacy etc. In previous study we saw that adolescents whose mothers work in outside will suffer more mental health problems such as depression, loneliness and low self-efficacy than the adolescents whose mother stay in home. The rationale of the study is that, at first we measure whether the adolescents of working women and non-working women differ in the level of depression, loneliness and self-efficacy. If there found any differences then we say that there may remain some risk factors towards the differences in depression, loneliness and self-efficacy regarding their working status (working women, non-working women). The findings of the proposed study might help the improvement of adolescent’s life. Adolescent’s loneliness and self-efficacy are correlated with depression. If their loneliness is high or low then their depression will be high or low. And it also hypothesized that high-low self-efficacy is also correlated with low-high depression. If these correlations are founded the further extensive study on those areas will lead to explore risk factors and positive factors. Statistics shows that 30 percent of teens with depression also develop a substance abuse problem, lonely teens struggle with relationships and more dangerous thing is untreated depression is the number one cause of suicide, so if we can assume that adolescent child of working mother has these risk factors we can prevent these factors and also working mothers can concerns about their children and they can make different environment where child can not feel lonely, do not be depressed and make high self efficacy. Objectives of the study: The objectives of the present study are to: Investigate the relationship among depression, loneliness and self-efficacy of adolescents of working and non-working mothers. Whether mother’s occupation has any effects on adolescent’s depression, loneliness and self-efficacy. Assess whether depression, loneliness and self-efficacy of adolescents differ by gender. Method Research Design Cross sectional study. Quantitative research, Random individual interview. Sample Size and Participants Almost 50 thousands of adolescents of Dhaka City are population in this study. The present study will be conducted on 200 adolescents where 100 will be working mother’s adolescents and 100 will be non-working mother’s adolescents who will be selected purposively but some will be selected conveniently and randomly. First I will select the school or college conveniently where I can collect data easily and then select a class randomly, I select the students purposively (criteria mother’s occupation, gender). A total of 200 adolescents (male and female) will be taken from Rajuk Uttara Model College by convenience sampling technique. The age of the respondents was between 15 to 18 years. Distributions of participants are given in the table 1. Table 1 Distribution of participants Adolescents (Working Mother) Adolescents (Non-Working Mother) Male 50 50 Female 50 50 Total 100 100 = 200 Instruments Demographic and personal information questionnaire: By this questionnaire, the data on age, gender, educational background, no. of siblings, family status, father’s occupation, and mother’s occupation’s details (job/business, duration, place), mothers’ age, mother’s educational background will be collected. Bangla Version (Pervin, 2007) of the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale (Russell, Dan, 1978): The revised UCLA Loneliness Scale was developed to measure loneliness. It is a 20 items 4 point Likert type scale. 20 items of English version were translated into Bengali. Each of the 20 items is scored such that 1 indicates lack of loneliness and a 4 indicates high level of loneliness. Thus, total scores of the scale can range from 20 to 80. Higher score means high level of loneliness and lower score means low feelings of loneliness. The Depression Scale (Rahman Uddin, 2005): The depression scale was constructed to measure depression in the context of Bangladesh. It consisted of 30 items or statements. The answer options for each item of the scale were according to 5 point rating scale. Sum of all values indicated total score on the scale. The highest possible score of 30-items form of depression scale is 150 and the lowest possible score is 30. Higher score indicates higher depression and lower score indicates low level of depression. Adapted Bangla Version (Ilyas, 2005) of Sherer et. al.’s (1982) General Self-Efficacy Scale: This scale was used to measure degree of agreement with perceived personal ability to affect outcomes in various situations. It was a 17 items 5 point Likert type scale where scores ranged between 1(strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). 6 of the 17 items were negative and for these items the scoring was reversed. Total score in the scale ranged from 17-85 with higher score representing higher self-efficacy. Procedure: Necessary demographic information sheet will be prepared first; the standard data collection procedure will be followed with a view to obtaining data about depression, loneliness and self-efficacy of adolescents of working and non-working mothers. First, the participants will sit in a room and then a brief description will be given about the questionnaire. They will be also instructed not to discuss about anything with one another while answering the questions and they will be assured that their opinions would be kept as confidential. The questionnaire with bio-data form was administered individually and they will ask to answer all the questions by giving tick marks. Once the answers will be collected, the respondents will be thanked for their kind co-operation. I will code and analyze the collected data by using computer software SPSS version 16.0 (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). Ethics Absence of the Ethical Committee I will not be able to collect Ethical Approval, but I will collect the permission of the Principle and Authority of the collage. I will also collect the consent of the students verbally. Data Analyses A descriptive analysis will be conducted of the variables such as gender, age, mother’s occupation. Then t-test analysis will be carried out to find out the differences between male and female adolescents. After that I will apply correlation statistics to find out the relationship among depression, loneliness and self-efficacy. Then a multiple regression analysis will be carried out to see how much depression, loneliness affect self-efficacy. Time Frame Annex 1 Objective-Data Collection Method analysis

Thursday, September 19, 2019

The Establishment of the Electoral College Essay -- essays research pa

The Electoral College is the system established by the Founding Fathers to select the President of the United States. It is important that Americans have a fundamental knowledge of this system, and the obstacles overcame in its development. There were many obstacles faced by the Founding Fathers while constructing the government. America was comprised of 13 states that wanted to protect their individual rights and leery of a strong centralized government. The nation’s population lay across a vast area with limited communication capabilities. In addition, the Founders believed that a true gentleman should not campaign for office. â€Å"The office should seek the man, the man should not seek the office† was the saying. They challenged themselves with overcoming these and other obstacles in order to produce a system that would provide a stable and powerful executive branch of government.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Constitutional Congress set out to develop a way to select the president. One idea proposed was to have Congress elect the president. Some felt that this procedure would invite political bargaining and corruption. They felt the president might feel obligated to aid Congress in passing legislation by not vetoing. Others felt this system would upset the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches of government. In spite of its drawbacks, this system was brought to a vote on four separate occasions(Peirce 39). A second idea was to have the president elected by a direct vote system. Many people did not believe in this type of system, however three very prominent figures did: James Wilson, Gouverneur Morris, and James Madison(Peirce 41). They believed that the duty of the president was to protect the people from the legislature, and that the people should be allowed to their protector. However, most of the Founders believed that the average citi zen would not have enough knowledge of the candidates to make an educated choice. They believed that the people were generally misinformed and easily misled(Peirce 41). The direct vote system also favored the larger more populated states with little regard for the people of the smaller ones. This system was voted down twice, but aided in recognizing the drawbacks of the Congress electing the president(Peirce 41). A third idea was to have the state legislatures select the president. This idea w... ...tate is allowed to cast only one vote collectively. This applies to the election of vice president also. In addition, either the presidential or the vice presidential candidate voted for by the elector has to be from outside that elector’s own state.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Electoral College has been used as the system to select the President of the United States for over two hundred years. The system was devised by the Founding Fathers to ensure that the selected president would receive the support of all the states. The system helped to maintain a strong centralized government and union. The Electoral College has been used to maintain a fair presidential selection system with little room for corruption or favoritism. It has been a part of our system of checks and balances by maintaining a clearly defined separation of the legislative and executive branches. There have been some bumps along the way, however the Electoral College is still an essential part of our elections system. Works Cited Glennon, Michael J. When No Majority Rules. Washington: Congressional Quarterly Inc, 1992. Peirce, Neal R. The People’s President. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1968.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

What Could Have Been... :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As I started down the long, narrow, hallway I felt my heart beating faster and my stomach rising into my throat. With much difficulty I kept my head up and my eyes forward, trying desperately to not view inside any of the rooms to the left or right. The hospital smell was stronger then ever and every little noise seemed as loud as thunder...almost like I had two water glasses up to my ears that just echoed every sound. Suddenly I’m stopped dead in my tracks by an orderly who senses that I’m lost or at least having trouble finding whatever it is that I was looking for. She was very sweet, and we probably conversed for a good 3 minutes, but no matter how hard I try I cannot remember one word that we exchanged. It’s almost like I had a conversation with her in my sleep and the second I walked past her it was like a dream, which I was barely able to remember. Well I guess I should explain where I am and why I’m here before I continue with m y story...we’ll go back to 3 hours ago, that should catch you up to speed.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Shit Sean your such a dumb ass, how could you forget the tap? How the hell are we supposed to get into a keg without a fucking tap? So now what do you suppose we do...get a nail gun and poke holes through it and get the whole 30 people at our party straws? I can’t rely on you to do anything right!†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Jesus Kim, I’m sorry, I just forgot, kill me why don’t you...I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry, what else can I say? Instead of sitting here and lecturing me about it why don’t you just get off your ass and come with me to find one?†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"No Sean, your on your own here, that was your only job, and I think you can handle it yourself, I have a ton of stuff to get ready here at the house.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Fine!†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Fine!†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As the door slammed I ran into the kitchen to start getting things ready for our little get together that my brother and I had been planning since our parents told us about their little trip to NYC for the weekend. The worst part about all of this is that I could have really cared less about the party, I have been in college for 2 years now, and sitting around and getting drunk really wasn’t unexplored territory.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Mary the mother of Jesus and the Catholic Church tradition

Mary otherwise called ‘The Blessed Virgin Mary’ or ‘The Virgin Mary’ or ‘Blessed Virgin’; terms commonly used within the Roman Catholic Church to describe Mary the mother of Jesus whose teaching and beliefs form the basis of Christianity. The Catholic Church holds the position held by Mary in high regard and this has occasioned many teachings as well as doctrines on this subject. (Newsweek, 6)  During the Second Vatican Council in the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church on November 21 1964, Mary was also given other titles of Mediatrix, Adjutrix and Advocate (http://www.whidbey.net/~dcloud/fbns/marycoredeemer.htm)The term Virgin Mary is not used virtually as a belief in her virginity but as a sign of a role of life continuity for the Catholic Church and for the Christians’ life. In Catholicism Mary is viewed as alive, and living in heaven where she is able to hear prayers offered by human beings on earth then intercedes on their behalf to Jesus her son. (Newsweek, 6)  Mary as opposed to Eve (the first woman) is considered as absolutely obedient; in fact she was called the Second Eve by St. Irenaeus; this was because it was through Mary that the first damage was undone, the damage that had been caused by Eve eating the fruit of the forbidden tree, where human beings were condemned by God to a life of sin.In 431AD, Mary was given the title ‘Theotokos’ a Greek name that translates as the â€Å"God- bearer† or ‘Divine Mother of God’. This description is purported to be supported by the Holy Scriptures in Luke 1:43 when Elizabeth saluted Mary thus â€Å"But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?† (Luke 1:43)Officially in the Roman Catholicism there are 4 dogmas or beliefs about Blessed Virgin Mary. They include– Mother of God (Theotokos )– Perpetual virginity– Immaculate conception– Assumption in to heaveni) Mother of God (Theotokos)In Mariology or the Christian theology concerned with Mary the mother of Jesus, this is the main and principle dogma. The Ecumenical Council of Ephesus declared it in 431AD. It is also considered to be the oldest of all the dogmas.The dogma in Mariology is very important especially in the Theology of Christ because as it is argued, if Mary was not the mother of God then it did not hold true that Jesus was God. As pointed before, this dogma was based on book of Luke 1:43 through Elizabeth’s salutation.Mary as the mother of God is regularly addressed as Theotokos in most Hymns in Catholicism and other Eastern Orthodox churches. One of the common hymns that is used in most services is Axion Estin which means ‘It is truly meet’. Other hymns in this regard include the famous Hail Mary, Beneath thy Compassion among others. (Newsweek, 7)The Immaculate ConceptionIn this Catholic Dogma Mary is considered as a very unique person among the humanity. She was uniqu e because she was born without sin and was free from the original sin. It was also held that she was sinless in her entire life.This dogma was promulgated by Pope Pius 1X on 8th December 1854.According to the Catholic Church teachings Mary was granted grace since conception yet she needed a savior through Jesus Christ. Also by way of God, the Catholic Church teachings hold that she shared in the gifts of the crucifixion of Jesus. Scriptural support for this is to be found in Luke 1:28 which is used to support the immaculate conception of Mary. Other scriptures in support of the immaculate conception is the instance in the scripture when she was greeted by Angel Gabriel as â€Å"full of grace† or â€Å"highly favored†Also according to this dogma, Mary was highly regarded as being the ‘Ark of the Covenant in the New Testament’ and just like Moses who used â€Å"incorruptible† wood for the tablets, it was seen befitting for her to be made â€Å"immacu late† and â€Å"incorruptible† as well.The Dogma of Immaculate Conception was significantly given more prominence from the vision of Our Lady of Lourdes in 1858. A 14-year-old girl by the name Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes made claims to the effect that a beautiful lady had made an appearance to her; the beautiful lady’s name as she put it, was â€Å"The Immaculate Conception†, the Catholic faithful believed this was indeed the appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary. (Newsweek, 8)To show how solemn the dogma of the Immaculate Conception is in the Roman Catholic Church, there is a Holy Day of Obligation in 1st of January every year for this purpose and it is almost celebrated as a holy day in some countries. (Newsweek, 8)Mary is usually highly considered in Catholicism unlike the rest of the humanity, she is considered to be free of the original sin. The Catholics argue that Jesus could not have been born in a vessel that was sinful. Thus to be able to car ry Jesus in her womb she had to be free of the original sin. (Newsweek, 8)  The perpetual virginity In this dogma, the Roman Catholic Church further affirms Mary’s â€Å"real and perpetual virginity even in the act of giving birth to the Son of God made man†. (Catechism of the catholic church 499) what this meant was that Mary remained a virgin in her entire life and Jesus was her only biological son who was not only miraculously conceived, but born as well. http://www.cin.org/v2church.html:It is further believed that in fact, Christ’s birth sanctified Mary’s virginity. Scriptural support for this belief is stated thus â€Å"The LORD said to me, â€Å"This gate is to remain shut. It must not be opened; no one may enter through it. It is to remain shut because the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered through it.† (Ezekiel 44:2) this, according to this dogma there was no form of sexual intercourse between Mary and Joseph which would have â€Å"de filed† her. The Catholics therefore hold that Mary remained pure and undefiled in her entire life. (Newsweek, 6)Some important statements to support this belief would include the Lateran Synod of 649, where in the teachings of Thomas Aquinas ‘Summa Theologiae III.28.2’, Mary is said to have given birth miraculously without pain, without opening her womb and without injuring or rupturing the hymen. http://www.cin.org/v2church.htmlThe Assumption of MaryThis dogma is the last among the four and is the most recent having been dogmatically defined as infallible on 1 November 1950 by Pope Pius XII in his Apostolic Constitution.The Theology of the Roman Catholic Church holds that The Blessed Virgin Mary â€Å"having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory† (Pope Pius XII, 1950). What this meant is that Mary unlike other humanity was taken to heaven, united body and soul, thus she never died the natural death experien ced by all living beings.The Roman Catholics celebrate the accession to heaven of Mary in the feast day as The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In John 14:3 Jesus in his Last Supper said thus † And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.† Mary is assumed to be the person to fulfill this promise. This is the scripture that is used to support the assumption of Mary into heaven.REFERENCESCatechism of the catholic church 499Pope Pius XII: â€Å"Munificentissimus Deus – Defining the Dogma of the Assumption†, par.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   44. Vatican, November 1, 1950John 14:3, Ezekiel 44:2, Luke 1:28, Luke 1:43. Scriptures lifted from NIV BibleNewsweek cover story, 1997-AUG-25.†The meaning of Mary: A struggle over her role grows within the church,†Ã¢â‚¬Å"Rome says Mary is Co-redeemer, mediator, advocate,† Way of Life, athttp://www .cin.org/v2church.html: Vatican II, â€Å"Lumen Gentium: Dogmatic Constitution of the Church,† Chapter 8, â€Å"The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of god in the mystery of Christ and the Church,† III, 62. See

Monday, September 16, 2019

The Individual, Marriage, and the Family

Instructor: Mrs. Joy Jacobs, CFCS, MAEd (â€Å"Mrs. J. †) E-mail address: [email  protected] edu Please always use â€Å"HDFS 145†³ on the subject line when you e-mail. Office hours: Mrs. J. will be in the classroom one half hour before and will stay after class until all students are gone, or you may make an appointment with her. Go to this website: https://ntweb11. ais. msu. edu/aas/ Because of advising responsibilities, she is not available for walk-in appointments and she cannot take phone calls from students. She HATES playing â€Å"phone tag†, so please do not try to leave phone messages in her office!Undergraduate Learning Assistants who will be helping with this class: Abbey Feldpausch [email  protected] edu Keeps track of students whose last names begin with A through K Carly Lesoski [email  protected] edu Keeps track of students whose last names begin with L through Z Office hours: Tuesdays from 4:30 to 6:30 PM in the Student Lounge, Room 4 Human E cology Two Required Texts (bundled together if purchasing new): The Marriage and Family Experience (11th edition) by Bryan Strong, Christine DeVault, & Ted Cohen, Cengage Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, Publishers (Do NOT let a book store employee tell you that the 10th edition is OK.The reading assignments will not make sense if you have the 10th edition. ) and FCE 145 Additional Readings supplemental text Custom Editor Steve Korb, Cengage Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, Publishers The study guide to the Strong & DeVault text is not recommended nor required, This class uses the ANGEL class management program. The syllabus, handouts, and some announcements will be posted on ANGEL, although some times you may will be contacted directly via e-mail. If you forward your MSU mail to another e-mail service, be certain that the transfer is working.You are responsible for knowing the content posted on ANGEL and e-mailed to your MSU e-mail address. Course Description: â€Å"The Individual, Marriage , and the Family† is one of several undergraduate courses offered in the area of family life by the Department of Human Development and Family Studies. In this class we use a developmental approach, presenting individual, marriage, and family life cycles with special emphasis on the late adolescent and early adult years. This is a survey course over topics regarding maturation, intimate relationships, and families.Issues to be covered include the development of the person, of relationships, and of families; issues of gender, sexuality, child development, and parenting; methods of communication; work and family interface; and developing family strengths. An emphasis is placed on understanding diverse family types. You will be expected to learn basic concepts related to families, to understand specific developmental issues of both individuals and families, and to gain a level of tolerance for different perspectives. You will be provided opportunities to explore your personal val ues.In addition, specific methods will be taught that you may use to enhance your own personal relationships. Course Format: This course will use a variety of teaching techniques including lecture, discussion, videotape, and in-class individual and group assignments which will play a role in challenging you to develop different ways of thinking about various issues and to appreciate the opinions of your classmates. If you want to do well in this class, you will read the assignments, and ESPECIALLY, you will attend class.This class is a collaborative process and necessitates a commitment from all of us to properly prepare for each class session. There are many important topics in the areas of marriage and the family, however, there is not sufficient time to include all of them. Subject matter and activities are selected in an effort to be meaningful to people of college age, and to enhance their personal development. Course Objectives: 1. To gain both historic perspective and an accu rate contemporary outlook of the demographic, political, social, and economic status of individuals and families. 2.To examine personal and societal attitudes, assumptions, and values about intimate relationships and families. 3. To examine the range of lifestyle options available to young adults. Special attention will be given to intimate relationships and to the social forces of the young adult period of life. 4. To appreciate the diversity of ethnicity, gender, religion, and social class which is represented in our society, and to gain an accurate perspective of the challenges and strengths of diverse people. 5. To examine key family issues such as communication, parenting, and the balance of work and family. -26.To develop an accurate understanding of the problems/challenges that some families confront, including but not limited to relationship violence, infertility, divorce, single parenting and child custody. 7. To gain an appreciation for and an understanding of intimate rel ationships over the entire life cycle. 8. To gain interpersonal skills working with others involving discussion, compromise, and evaluation. Attendance: It will be to your advantage to attend all class sessions, to be on time, and to remain in class for the entire session to learn from the lectures and to have the opportunity to do and to receive credit for the assignments.Absences for illness, for family emergencies, or for religious observances may be excused, but you must e-mail Mrs. J. BEFORE THE START TIME (8:30 AM) of the class you are going to miss. (See â€Å"Make-Up Policies† on page 3. ) Absence from class because of participation in a required activity for another course or for a University event (a field trip, an intercollegiate athletic contest, etc. ), will be excused, but you must provide written information in advance from the athletic advisor, the instructor of the other course, or from a University administrator.You must make arrangements with another studen t to look over his/her lecture notes when you miss class. Student Behavior: Your conduct in class must be quiet, attentive, and respectful toward your fellow students and the instructor. Reading the paper, working crossword puzzles, playing games on your laptop, talking to class mates, sleeping, or using a cell phone or PDA during class is rude and unprofessional, and you may be asked to leave if you are engaging in any of these behaviors. No credit would be given to you for an in-class activity if one is offered during that particular class session. ) If you are expecting an important cell phone call, please set your phone to vibrate, and leave the classroom to take care of your call. Academic Honesty: The Department of Human Development and Family Studies adheres to the policies on academic honesty as specified in the All-University Policy on Integrity of Scholarships and Grades at http://www. reg. msu. edu/read/UCC/Updated/integrityofgrades. pdf We expect students to behave ethic ally, and will not tolerate dishonesty.For example, a student who would photocopy another student’s make-up assignment paper or cheat on an examination would receive no credit for the assignment or exam which will be counted as one of the scores used in figuring the student’s final grade, and notification will be made to the student’s College Dean. A student who commits a second offense will receive a grade of 0. 0 for the course. Selling or Buying Class Notes: Lectures and supporting materials distributed or exhibited in this course include intellectual property protected by copyright law.It is against University policy for any student to sell or profit from the transmission or reproduction of these materials (whether directly to other students, by contract with third parties, or through commercial note-taking services) without the express written permission of the instructor. The relevant MSU policy about attendance and class notes is found at http://www. reg. msu. edu/read/UCC/Updated/attendance. pdf Students who provide class materials to anyone for profit are subject to removal from class, pending a hearing by the Department of Human Development and Family Studies.Accommodations for Disabilities: If you have a disability (dyslexia, ADD, hearing difficulty, sight limitation, etc. ) and expect preferential treatment, you must register with the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities and submit to Mrs. J. the official â€Å"VISA† with a counselor’s suggestions for reasonable accommodations. For an appointment with RCPD, call 353-9642 (voice) or 355-1293 (TTY). We work closely with the counselors to do whatever we can to help RCPD students succeed. Evaluation for Grades: Syllabus Quiz: Posted on ANGEL is a quiz which we will discuss during the first class session.Your syllabus quiz scantron is due in class any time before, but not later than, 8:30 AM Tuesday, September 18. Examinations: Questions are about 50% from lec tures and 50% from text and ANGEL information. We ask that you be in the classroom by 8:45 AM on exam days to have enough time to finish the exams. There will be one exam over each quarter of the course and an optional comprehensive final. If you take all five exams, only your four highest exam scores will be used when we figure final grades. Exams are computer scored, and results are sent directly to you from the computer scoring center.Activities/Assignments: During six class sessions (unannounced), we will do assignments which will enhance learning. You may be asked to write a â€Å"five-minute paper† expressing your opinion about a current event, to work with another student to debate a topic and list your combined conclusions, or to answer questions and provide an ending to a case study. You will print your last name and PID on the upper right-hand corner of your activity paper. A point will be deducted from your score if your last name and PID are not in the upper right -hand corner of your paper.We must have both a paper with -3your last name and PID and a completed scantron with your name and PID â€Å"bubbled in† for you to receive credit for an assignment. If we do not have both, you do not receive credit. For each activity, you may earn up to fifteen points. (You would receive fewer points if instructions are not followed completely or if your response is insufficient. ) Some activities will be based on personal opinion, however, your responses should always demonstrate understanding of class concepts. On some activity days, score sheets will be passed out as you enter the classroom.On those days, you must arrive at the classroom by 8:45 AM to receive a 15-point scantron for an activity. Students who arrive between 15 and 30 minutes late will receive no more than half credit. Students arriving more than 30 minutes late will receive no scantron, and no credit for doing the activity, although they may do it if they wish. Our learning assi stants go by the time on the clock on the back wall of our classroom. Please do not argue with them about the time you entered the classroom. If you must leave a class early, let Mrs. J. now before class starts or give your name, e-mail address and reason for leaving to one of the learning assistants as you exit the classroom. If an activity is planned and your excuse is reasonable, you will be sent a make-up assignment. Community Service Assignment: This assignment is not just to volunteer. It is to serve others. To earn full credit, you must work for at least four hours for a program, agency or organization where you can make a difference by your work, and you must write an acceptable reflection paper about the experience.More information on the assignment is on our ANGEL site. If you have an idea for your service but you are concerned about its acceptability for the assignment, please check with Mrs. J. BEFORE you participate in the activity. We strongly suggest that you not put off doing your service, because your schedule will become busier as the semester passes. Examples of service accepted in the past includes running or helping with the MSU Museum Dinosaur Dash or a fund raiser walk for breast cancer, work at an animal shelter, and tutoring elementary students one-on-one.Volunteer activities such as directing traffic for the Homecoming Parade, setting up chairs for a fraternity party, or decorating a church’s Christmas tree are NOT acceptable. MSU’s Center for Service Learning and Civic Engagement is a good place to find a service opportunity. Make-Up Policies: A make-up assignment will be given if you e-mail Mrs. J. BEFORE the 8:30 AM start time of the class you will miss with the reason you will be absent, or if you check out with one of the student assistants to leave class early.If your reason is acceptable, you will be e-mailed a make-up assignment. If you miss a class but do not notify Mrs. J. before the class, you must have medica l documentation or other acceptable proof that you were where you said you were, and you must notify Mrs. J. within two weeks of the missed class. Make-up activities must be turned in by the due date listed on the activity (two weeks from the day missed). Each student will be given one â€Å"free† assignment make-up, if the reason for absence is justifiable. You must notify Mrs.J via e-mail within two weeks of the missed class. If you must miss an exam, send Mrs. J. an e-mail before 8:30 AM on the exam day with your reason for missing. Exceptions may be made if you are not able to notify her. Exams are made up during the learning assistants’ office hours and should be done within two weeks of the missed exam day. Receiving Your Scores: You will receive your exam scores via e-mail from the Computer Scoring Center within 24-48 hours. Assignments are hand-graded, so you will not receive those scores as quickly. Please allow a week. ) The e-mail you receive from the Comput er Center will say that the sender is Mrs. J. This score report will show the number of points earned for a particular assignment or exam, and also, at the very bottom, will show your cumulative points. After each exam, print and save the report you receive because it shows your answer to each question, and will be useful if you want to review the exam during the helpers’ office hours. Mrs. J does not receive this report, so there is no way to get another copy if you do not save it yourself.Points Possible: Syllabus quiz @20 points Exams @ 65 points – 5 given, but only 4 are counted Six activities/assignments @ 15 points Community service assignment Total 20 points 260 points 90 points 30 points 400 points (100%) -4- About 65% of your final grade comes from the exams, and about 35% of your final grade comes from the rest of the class (syllabus quiz, in-class activity assignments, and the community service assignment). There will be several additional questions on each exam and we will do two 5-point â€Å"bonus† assignments to enable all students to earn some extra points.In reality, at least 25 points of extra credit will be built in to the class and are available to every student. No student will be given any other kind of extra credit—please do not ask at the end of the semester. Scale for Final Grades: *** 400 points is 100% *** 374 total points or more 354 through 373 points 334 through 353 points 314 through 333 points 294 through 313 points 274 through 293 points 254 through 273 points 253 and below 4. 0 3. 5 3. 0 2. 5 2. 0 1. 5 1. 0 0. 0 At the end of the semester, the score report total from the computer center will include all five exam scores if you have taken all five.You must then subtract your lowest exam score from the total to figure your final score for the course. It is to your advantage to take all five exams, since you cannot hurt your grade by doing so. ~~~~~~~ Michigan State University takes seriously the opini on of students in the evaluation of the effectiveness of instruction, and has implemented the SIRS (Student Instructional Rating System) process to gather student feedback. This course utilizes the â€Å"online SIRS† system. You will receive an e-mail sometime during the last two weeks of class asking you to fill out the SIRS online form at your convenience.MSU’s Thanksgiving break starts at 5 PM Wednesday 11/21. The community service assignment is due as you enter the classroom on Tuesday, 11/27. Papers turned in after 8:30 AM this day will earn no more than half credit. Chapter 8, p. 293 â€Å"Middle-Aged Marriages† to end Chapter 10, p. 370 â€Å"Parenting and Caregiving†¦.. † to end Death & dying Exam #4 Chapter 10, p. 347 â€Å"Infant Mortality† to p. 349 â€Å"Giving Birth† Over all information since Exam #3 Make-up assignments for any time during the last two weeks are due as you enter the classroom today. No make-ups will be acc epted after 8:30 AM this date. Fri. 12/14 Final Exam – OPTIONAL 7:45 to 9:45 AM Same room where class meets. We will be ready to start early at 7:30 AM. The final exam is comprehensive, over all information since the beginning of the semester. Please do not ask to take the final exam early. The University sets the final exam schedule and exceptions are made by a University committee, not by the instructor. If you will want to take this final exam to try to improve your grade, do not plan to leave campus before exam week is over unless you can come back Friday morning to take the exam. HDFS 145 Community Service Assignment InstructionsMost of our students have found a real sense of satisfaction and fulfillment in this assignment. You are to find a service opportunity at a program, agency or organization where you can do something meaningful for your community. You will then write a â€Å"reflection† paper about your experience. You may find your own service opportunity or ask for help at the MSU Center for Service Learning and Civic Engagement in the Student Services Building. The Center has over 300 registered agencies and programs in the local area where students are welcome for community service.Their website is: http://www. servicelearning. msu. edu/ however, most students find going to the Center is preferable to trying to navigate the website. Your work must be done between the first day of class and the first day back after Thanksgiving break (Tuesday, November 27). Acceptable assignments turned in before 8:30 AM on Tuesday, October 2, will earn five bonus points. Community service you might have done previously (for example, as part of your high school graduation requirements) is not acceptable.The purpose of this assignment is to do something to benefit your community, not just to volunteer. A service assignment for another class (for example, an ISS class or HDFS 270) or for your athletic team may not be appropriate for this class, altho ugh if the service meets our requirements, you may use it. If you are unsure about the service opportunity you are considering, please e-mail Mrs. J before you spend time doing something that will not be acceptable. We do not want you to lost points on this assignment because you did not meet the requirements.A few examples of unacceptable assignments: directing traffic for the Homecoming parade; decorating a church Christmas tree; speaking to students at your former high school about your life in college; helping at your aunt’s daycare; helping coach at an athletic competition of your former high school or club athletic team A few examples of acceptable assignments: participating in or passing out water to runners in a 5K run to benefit cancer research; cleaning cages at an animal shelter; tutoring elementary students in math or reading; sorting and packing food at the MSU Food Pantry; helping prepare and serve a meal at a homeless shelter; being a â€Å"running buddy† at a Special Olympics track meet To prove your service, print and take with you the Community Service Assignment form on ANGEL, and ask whoever supervises your work to fill it out and to sign it.This will be the first part of the â€Å"proof† of service you turn in to receive points for this assignment. The second part is a reflection paper you will write (one page, size ten font, double-spaced, name and PID in top right corner) explaining your service and reflecting on your feelings about helping your community. Service required is a minimum of four hours. Students who work less time will not earn full points. If your program, agency or organization cannot use you for four hours at one time, you may do two sessions of service or you may work at two different places. In the second case, you should fill out a form for each service opportunity, but you need to write only one paper (turn all pages in at the same time, please).You may not earn extra points for this assignment b y working extra hours, however, you may earn five extra points by turning in the assignment by 8:30 AM on Tuesday, October 2. If you want to wait and do your service in your home community over the Thanksgiving break, you might want to check with Mrs. J first to be sure the agency, program or organization you are considering will meet the requirements for the assignment. We recommend that you set up your service before you go home. Don’t wait until you get home to look for something to do! When you turn in your assignment to one of the helpers, you will be asked to fill out a special scantron. Community Service Assignments will be graded by the end of the semester, and the scantrons will be run at the same time scantrons for the fourth exam are run.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

How Effective Is Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell Tale Heart as a Gothic Horror Essay

‘How effective is Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Tell Tale’ Heart’ as a gothic horror? ’ The short story ‘The Tell Tale Heart’ was written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1843. It is written in first person in the past tense. The story opens in the middle of what seems to be a dialogue between the narrator and his audience. We learn that the narrator looks after an old man with a pale blue eye; he describes it as being like that of a ‘vulture’. We are told that the eye disturbs the narrator, for this reason the narrator decides to take the old man’s life. During the seven days before the murder, the speaker is extremely kind to his victim in the day time. However, in the night he would creep into the old man’s room awaiting the appearance of the ‘Evil’ eye. On the eighth night the old man wakes up, the eye causes the narrator to suddenly lash out and kill the old man. He ‘dismembers’ the corpse and stores it under the floor boards. The police visit his house due to a shriek heard by a neighbour. At first he is calm and sure of himself, but becomes increasingly nervous and seems to go insane. The narrator admits his crime to the police even though they have no apparent suspicions. The dark and mysterious setting of Poe’s story is typical of a gothic horror. We learn from early on that the narrator is actually the villain. He speaks directly to the reader, creating a personal bond which we do not share with any other character. We know very little about the victim which prevents us from empathising with him later on in the story. The narrator is a very complex character, he seems to have a distorted view of the world around him and we assume him to be mad. Madness is a popular theme of gothic horror and one of the reasons the story is so effective is because of the erratic way in which it is told. Some events of the tale seem to be unrealistic and this adds mystery to the horror. The main event of the tale, the murder, is also common in the gothic horror genre. Because of these links to a general tale of gothic horror, I believe Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Tell Tale Heart’ is very effective. Within the first paragraph I get the impression that the speaker is mad and disturbed. He accuses the audience of thinking he is mad by saying ‘why will you say that I am mad? This causes us to question his sanity because he has no reason to say this. Now that the theme of madness is fresh in our heads, as we continue to read the story the idea that the narrator is ‘mad’ comes to mind easily. I get the impression that he is insecure and possibly knows he is insane because he’s trying to persuade us otherwise. The narrator speaks at a very fast pace using disjointed sentences such as, ‘True! -nervous-very, very dreadfully nervous! ’ The vast amount of punctuation makes this sentence choppy and slow to read causing you to trip over what he is saying. This manner of dialogue reflects his frantic personality. Also, the narrators distorted view of things reinforces the horror genre. We assume that he has a distorted view because he expresses his ‘love’ for the old man yet soon explains his wishes to take his life. There is a paradox in this situation and shows us how scrambled his thoughts are. The idea of the narrator not thinking straight and being irrational excites the audience. It also adds to the effectiveness of the gothic horror. When I first read ‘The Tell Tale Heart’ I felt eager to find out the narrator’s later actions. This backs up my earlier idea of both the story and narrator being extremely effective as a gothic horror. When the speaker tells us he is going to ‘take the old man’s life’ our opinion of him changes. We begin to realise that he could be evil and cold hearted. He makes it clear that the old man has ‘never wronged’ him, this is strange because this would make the only reason for murder the man’s ‘diseased’ eye. This seems extremely unnecessary and cruel; this behaviour has a great link with gothic horror. Also, it is frightening to think that such a defect could motivate a murder. Suspense is built when the narrator rehearses the actions that lead up to the murder for seven nights. This suggests that he is incredibly meticulous. He is a perfectionist and is repeating his intended actions to ensure all runs smoothly. We could also get the impression that he is fearful of killing the old man. I think that he uses the fact that the eye isn’t open as an excuse not to kill the old man, he says ‘but I found the eye always to be closed; and so it was impossible to do the work’. This in fact, is a lie. It would have been much simpler to murder the old man whilst he was sleeping. When the narrator creeps into his room at night he is very slow and quiet. This ensures that he doesn’t see the eye and therefore doesn’t get enraged. This situation is extremely disturbing, it seems warped that the narrator would have such ruthless ideas but then be unable to follow them through. The speaker proudly tells us that in the day he treats the old man with courtesy and respect. In a way, this tells me that he is not a completely evil character; merely controlled by his impulses. On the other hand it could be perceived as the narrator being a good actor and sly. By being devious and two faced about the situation our opinion of the character changes. This is creepy because he is unpredictable; we are never quite sure when things are going to happen. On the eighth night, the narrator was more than usually cautious when entering the old man’s room. This immediately raises our suspicions and we begin to question why he has done this. It suggests that for some reason the narrator was apprehensive on that particular night. In the end, his over-cautiousness was his downfall because he accidently wakes the old man. This is disturbing because now the man is awake we assume that the murder will now take place. In the immediate build up to the murder the narrator describes in great depth what the old man is thinking. This implies to me that the speaker has experienced similar situations and can associate with the old man. It also could suggest that the narrator’s senses have been sharpened, as he tells us in the first paragraph: ‘the disease had sharpened my senses’. It gives us the idea that the narrator can tell what the old man is thinking. Hints of mind reading enhance the effect of this gothic horror because they are supernatural. Even though the old man wakes up, the darkness in the building gives the narrator confidence and adds to the effectiveness of the gothic horror. Darkness is often directly linked with evil and also the idea that anything can happen definitely adds to the tension and horror. Also, the possibility that if the old man hadn’t woken up, the cycle of the narrator watching the man sleep could have carried on forever is extremely creepy. The fact that we feel for the murderer more than the victim in this story is very strange. We would expect to pity the old man because we are told he is kind and has never ‘wronged’ the narrator. The fact he has a strange eye cannot be helped and is through no fault of his own. Although the reader is obviously shocked by what happens to the old man, there is no personal relationship between him and the reader because we know very little about him. I think that Edgar Allen Poe has done this on purpose so that we are more attached to the murderer, which is what makes this story particularly unusual. Moments before the narrator kills the old man, he claims to hear his heart beating. It is impossible to ‘hear’ someone else’s heart beat with human hearing so this is an extremely weird claim. A possible explanation for this is that the narrator is hearing his own heart due to nervousness. At the start of the story the narrator says that his hearing is extremely acute due to the ‘disease’. The fact that he uses the word ‘disease’ suggests that this extra hearing is a burden to him. This is true because he probably doesn’t want to hear the old man’s heartbeat. The motif of the heart beat is key to the story because, as shown by the title, it eventually is the undoing of the murderer. The imagery is also very scary and builds a great tension because we imagine the drumming of the heart in our heads. Eventually the speaker is driven to action by fear and kills the old man. This brutal murder is key to the story being classed as a gothic horror. We realise that he cares if anyone finds out about his deed and begin to understand that he is not genuinely insane; otherwise he wouldn’t have a perspective of people finding out and being prosecuted. His mind is hard to analyse because he is clever and obviously knows what he is doing. In a way this is more horrific that him being insane because it shows deep evil. Even though we can tell that the murderer is intelligent, the way he kills the old man is extremely clumsy. Suffocating him with a ‘heavy’ bed? Surely there are many less awkward, quieter ways in which he could have killed him? The idea that even an everyday item such as a bed can be used a murder weapon is extremely creepy. His method suggests that even though he is meticulous, he didn’t think enough about actually killing the old man. The narrator’s immediate response to the murder was that of pleasure; this is disturbing. As soon as the deed was done he ‘smiled gaily’. Also, the first thing he says is that ‘his eye would trouble me no more’; it’s like he is relieved. Normally I would be surprised by this guilt free response but by now it is unsurprising. We are familiar with the narrator’s lack of feeling and conscience. It is questionable why the narrator ‘dismembers’ the old man’s body. It is strange because as far as we know the narrator only has a problem with his eye. It could have been an act of precaution, even though this is unnecessary. Maybe the narrator saw it as a challenge? If this is true the idea of the narrator almost playing a game adds to the horror of the tale. We can tell that the narrator never saw the old man as a person, more of an object. Another possible reason could be that, because the narrator is so fastidious, he wanted everything to be neat and compact. This is very risky though because you would assume it would be a messy job. The narrator says there was no mess; could this once again be a distorted view of things? As the narrator goes about his gruesome task (dismembering the body) his tone of voice is very methodical and boastful. This suggests he is calm about the gory situation which is horrible. He does not elaborate the gore and we get the impression he is being very clean. We also get the impression that he is proud of his actions and the fact he has caught all the blood and prevented any possible mess. His tone has an effect on the reader; it dumbs down how disgusting his act is. He achieves this by not making a big deal of the details. The narrator’s initial response to the arrival of the policemen is fearless and vaguely smug. This creates an uneasy mood because we wonder if he will be found out. He ‘bade(s) the gentlemen welcome’ as if nothing is wrong. He is so confident he sits right above the spot where the old man is buried. This seems to be unnecessarily arrogant, which in the end is his own undoing. His attitude changes when the officers hang around for a long time; the narrator begins to feel they are mocking him. A lot of tension builds here because we can sense that something important is going to happen through the frantic situation. Tension is built up when the narrator begins to hear the heart beat again and believes the policemen can hear it too. This is physically impossible because the old man is definitely dead. Maybe it’s the murderer’s guilty conscience finally showing through! He starts pacing back and forth with ‘heavy strides’ but the heartbeat doesn’t stop. The tension continues to build as he raves and swears. He ‘swung the chair’ and ‘grated it upon the boards’. This is extremely horrific and it is even stranger that the policeman don’t seem to pay any attention. I think that his ravings may have been in his head but it’s hard to understand because of his distorted frantic view of everything. These hints of insanity constantly link back to the effectiveness of this gothic horror. I believe that this is a brilliant short story and I especially like the ending. It is unpredictable and exciting; not all of your questions are answered in the story and this makes your carry on thinking after you’ve finished reading. I wonder what happened to the murderer, and the heart beating still puzzles me. In conclusion, I believe that ‘The Tell Tale Heart’ by Edgar Allen Poe is an excellent gothic horror. It contains many key features of a good horror, the biggest being the narrator/murderer who is the mean part of the story. Also, the main event, the murder, definitely is pivatel to the gothic horror genre.